Baring the Device: Ethics in Publishing

The Gravity of the Thing’s editors have compiled a brief list of resources that relate to ethical practices in publishing. Here are a few ways writers, editors, and publishers are critically analyzing literary craft and publishing processes.

Selected Poems | Panika M. C. Dillon

"the Valkyries predicted we would crave quake, that the stars existed to shine down on our teeth embedded in sidewalks like ivory sequins / there’s a crack in the bruised sky of Ymir’s skull—that’s how the light invents Valaskjalf..."

The Emperor’s Mirror | Alex Zhao

"The seeds of my prison were sown in the third century when a drunk calligrapher scrawled an impromptu poem. On a spring afternoon beside a stream, the calligrapher Xizhi composed the Orchid Pavilion Preface, an ode to life’s brevity..."

For Your Self-Defense | Shanti Chandrasekhar

"Within a nanosecond, we are alert, guarded, equipped. We multiply into a huge army, ready for action. Not for nothing, we’re called your first line of defense. We charge with one goal. To protect you..."

Mourning and Highways | Amy Allison

"when you were tucked in your grave, / neat as a napkin in a lap, / all words soared off to / some shining tree, / bereaving me / now they’re transforming / into things that hurl by..."

Selected Poems | Noah Anthony Mezzacappa

"Says once she tripped that she was her own mother giving birth to herself. She was in labor for forty-eight hours and remembers every second of it: the bed of ice they laid her on as they tried to bring her fever down, the surgical lights spinning like saucers..."

Paper Trail | Jason Fraley

"I’m different than other babies. Their gemstone eyes, chubby everythings, innate ability to wiggle. Me? I’m one legal-sized sheet of paper, blue lines barely visible..."